What did you screw-up today??

[NOBLNG]

2 hours ago, ksnow said:

Tried doing the raised white lettering on some Goodyears for the 70 GSX I am building. I turned the first one into a solid white letter tire. Wipe it off and try again tonight. This is round 3 of trying to get those letters good.

I just rolled the tip of this pen sideways across the letters on these tires. I don’t know if the pen is available in white, but the silver colour is not too not conspicuous.

[Paul Payne]

Paint will do it to me every time.

[ksnow]

NOBLNG, that's pretty much what I am doing. I have to wipe the tip of the pen I use off every letter. Too much ink builds up on it and then flows into the letters. I got in a hurry and messed up as couple letters. Thanks for the tip.

It also helps when the letters are nice and raised. The lettering on some older AMT tires fought me hard, there wasn't much height on the letters to work with and I ended up with lots of white on the sidewall. Those tires went on with no lettering.

[thomascoffey1959@gmail.com]

    I always ALWAYS, screw up the finishing touches. touch it up,,, ,touch it up some more, then touch up the touchups. They are my signature, the screwups and touchups.                          As for the learning from others mistakes, I can't even learn from my own. I seem to keep making the same mistakes.  That might be why my "dead" wips are so numerous, I'm afraid I'm going to OOPs and screw up a project that was going so well, until 

[TransAmMike]

1 hour ago, Tom Geiger said:

I’ve always said that it’s not how you screwed up, it’s how you recover!   

I haven’t screwed up anything today. No doubt because I’m sitting in my easy chair sipping my morning coffee. But give me time!

When I first started this thread it was for me to rant about my frustration. Then I changed the title.  I'm glad I did, some great stuff  (well maybe not actual issues) being posted.

I'm with you on morning coffee thing. My everyday routine is get up, drink my coffee in my recliner as I check emails and then pull up the forum. After lunch, usually, I modelling time.  Today's attempt to "screw-up" something is to see what to do to correct the clear deeeeezazter🙄

[TransAmMike]

51 minutes ago, thomascoffey1959@gmail.com said:

    I always ALWAYS, screw up the finishing touches. touch it up,,, ,touch it up some more, then touch up the touchups. They are my signature, the screwups and touchups.                          As for the learning from others mistakes, I can't even learn from my own. I seem to keep making the same mistakes.  That might be why my "dead" wips are so numerous, I'm afraid I'm going to OOPs and screw up a project that was going so well, until 

Right on Thomas!!   I have completed about 17 models since I re-started doing them, and I'm pretty sure not a single one was without some issue......and it just keeps happening!!

[stinkybritches]

I made the mistake of trying to paint the engine for my Thunderbolt 2 door wagon with a spray can that I had never used before. Of course I didn't do a test spray beforehand, what could possibly go wrong? I think the whole can emptied out with 1 squirt. The engine is now soaking in Super Clean. I guess that's what I get for being too lazy to get the airbrush and compressor out.   

[TransAmMike]

28 minutes ago, stinkybritches said:

I made the mistake of trying to paint the engine for my Thunderbolt 2 door wagon with a spray can that I had never used before. Of course I didn't do a test spray beforehand, what could possibly go wrong? I think the whole can emptied out with 1 squirt. The engine is now soaking in Super Clean. I guess that's what I get for being too lazy to get the airbrush and compressor out.   

And this is the kind of stuff we can learn (or take) from this thread!!   Some of us will never really learn tho.

Keep em coming folks😃

Edited March 12, 2021 by TransAmMike

[Tom Geiger]

21 hours ago, thomascoffey1959@gmail.com said:

     I'm working on a 58 chevy it's one of those " bring out your dead" been at least 10 yrs. I had previously sanded off the chrome trim, and primed it  today ,then plowed ahead and sprayed it with tamiya  gold,,,,except it wasn't gold, it was coral blue.  dizzy blonde moment.

There needs to be a t-shirt for this one!   I've been clear coating a body, reached for the spray can to touch up a small area and sprayed flat black!   😝

Lesson learned?  Today I write the color in black marker on the silver part of the can right below the nozzle!  

Also when I buy new spray cans of paint, I will write the in service date somewhere on the can label.

Edited March 12, 2021 by Tom Geiger

[Venom]

16 hours ago, Snake45 said:

Some of us might find this thread educational. If you're paying attention, you might learn how to avoid some kinds of problems, and/or how to fix them. Valuable advice might be offered by members here for fixes for various screw-ups.

Someone once told me, "A wise man learns from his mistakes. A really wise man learns from other people's mistakes." 

Yes I totally agree ... but you know how much humor is based on someone else’s misfortune (strangely/unfortunately)... and sometimes the funniest ones are because we can relate ... we’ve been there in that agony before ... but suddenly we get a glimpse of it from a whole new angle and we laugh. It just happens.

Maybe someone can get a laugh out of this one, though it was a while back;

My Shelby Cobra Racer that I posted pics of on these forums was the first model I ever used an airbrush to paint and the first time using waterborne paints as well. I had used the airbrush and paints a lot on other artwork however and was using a heat gun to flash dry between coats, only this time I had no heat gun. The gears in my head turned and a lightbulb came on when I realized I could use my oven at super low heat ... great idea!💡 ... and it was working perfectly!  I got everything painted and clear coated and it came out beautifully. I then did it with the frame, and some of the parts trees that I had painted, carefully watching through the oven window ...and that’s when it happened... I saw something sag!🙀 It was part of the front suspension which I was able to reheat and straighten with, of all things, a lighter!😳 Once I got all the undercarriage assembly complete with the wheels on, everything went together nice and square and at this point I had gobs of time put into this thing. This was my third Revell Cobra build so I was familiar with how things fit together. As I began to place the body on the undercarriage I knew to put the nose on first and then with minimal finagling the rear would “click” satisfyingly into place ... but this time, no “click”... the body simply fell over the back end like a way too big cowboy hat. “Oh noooo!” was the only thought going through my head as my heart fell into my gut. Although invisible to they eye, the whole body had seemingly expanded. This seemed insurmountable to fix, and after I deliberated about it for some time I realized it was going to have to be all or nothing ... I plopped it back into the oven with cold water running on the side. I would pull it out and bend it where I thought it needed and run it under the water while holding it in the bent position, and then go back to re-fit it on the chassis ... it took several attempts at this to begin seeing/understanding, just exactly how I needed to bend it, and back to the oven and water I would go, contorting the body to extremes while it was hot to counter the spring back. I spent hours doing this and likely put it into the oven around twenty times. ...And finally it happened ... it “clicked” into place!... I felt total disbelief as I expected to find something else out of alignment, but while I was inspecting everything it was all sitting just perfectly ... absolutely perfectly....😅 The relief of that moment was immense. The moral here? Oven/plastic = bad idea. But also ... Don’t give up!

Turns out, you don’t need to use heat at all, just blowing the air from the airbrush is enough the flash dry small sections at a time.

Edited March 13, 2021 by Venom

[El Roberto]

I finished up what I thought was a really nice 32 ford 5 window and noticed ugly blob of cement on the rear window.  After exausting my curse word vocabulary I printed out a little For Sale sign and stuck it over the blob.  

However some screw ups are not fixable.  I knocked over a bottle of Tamiya extra thin cement on a sheet of decals once. It was ugly.  

[TransAmMike]

Since I started this crazy thread, might as well add today's you know what. Just happened. 

The nag Mustang.  I posted a while back asking how to get decals off (after they were noticeably crooked) All suggestions failed so the only way I could get them off was to sand them off requiring complete new paint. So just a few minutes ago, decals on (and actually straight), had the body laying on its roof on a cotton cloth, gluing the rear window in. I picked it up and WTH, one of the roof stripes is laying on the cloth, and it's torn. 🤪

And by the way, since it's GT350, those freakin' quarter windows that are actually too small for the opening are a real pain. 

I'll be sooo glad to get this one complete. 

[thomascoffey1959@gmail.com]

I'm ok with it, I don't get upset anymore. I get nervous if NOTHING goes wrong.  We can't all be DaVincis ,some of us just have to be Picasos  ?

[slusher]

9 hours ago, El Roberto said:

However some screw ups are not fixable.  I knocked over a bottle of Tamiya extra thin cement on a sheet of decals once. It was ugly.  

I did that once wit a bottle of super glue and the top was off. I sanded my work table all day to get it back smooth. Lost all the spare parts on my table. Now the super glue sits in a juice glass open or shut.  It was Loctite industrial strength.

[El Roberto]

1 hour ago, slusher said:

I did that once wit a bottle of super glue and the top was off. I sanded my work table all day to get it back smooth. Lost all the spare parts on my table. Now the super glue sits in a juice glass open or shut.  It was Loctite industrial strength.

At least the Tamiya cleaned up my cutting mat.  BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH super is difficult if not impossible to clean up. 

[Venom]

5 hours ago, thomascoffey1959@gmail.com said:

“...We can't all be DaVincis ,some of us just have to be Picasos  ?”

Haha ... I’m gonna remember that one👍

[TransAmMike]

Huh!!!  And how many times have we stuck our fingers together using super glue🙄😅   Just yesterday for me!!

Edited March 13, 2021 by TransAmMike

[Snake45]

32 minutes ago, TransAmMike said:

Huh!!!  And how many times have we stuck our fingers together using super glue🙄😅   Just yesterday for me!!

Haven't done that in a while, but the other day I opened up the "ham" of my left thumb pretty good trying to cut the glued-in hood out of a '67 Falcon with an Xacto #5 knife with a chisel-tip blade. Ouch! 

[TransAmMike]

15 minutes ago, Snake45 said:

Haven't done that in a while, but the other day I opened up the "ham" of my left thumb pretty good trying to cut the glued-in hood out of a '67 Falcon with an Xacto #5 knife with a chisel-tip blade. Ouch! 

Yep, those darn blades will do some damage, I recently cut my thumb with a sharp knife (but not modelling).  I thought the bleeding would never stop😠

[thomascoffey1959@gmail.com]

       I have a 1st aid kit, on the shelf right in front of me, as it's the most frequently used tools on my bench.   someone needs to invent a bandaid wrapper you can open with one hand.

[TransAmMike]

6 minutes ago, thomascoffey1959@gmail.com said:

       I have a 1st aid kit, on the shelf right in front of me, as it's the most frequently used tools on my bench.   someone needs to invent a bandaid wrapper you can open with one hand.

Good point Thomas, for something you need usually right away they can be a pain to unwrap!!

[keyser]

Just now, TransAmMike said:

Good point Thomas, for something you need usually right away they can be a pain to unwrap!!

Superglue fixes cuts better than gluing fingers together. Tolerates soap and water too. ER and OR use it. 

[TransAmMike]

Noted!!  Good tip 👍

[thomascoffey1959@gmail.com]

     The problem with the 1st aid superglue,,,, it ALWAYS sticks to where ever you DIDN'T put it, and don't want it  !  Maybe its just me 

[keyser]

Run a small bead on cut. Don’t touch it. Or anything else with it. Before you put drop on cut wipe excess blood off with tissue. Put it down, then glue and wait. Nothing else.